Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: hippie army, flirty fishing, The Family, David Berg, San Diego (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In January 2005, Ricky Rodriguez stabbed a woman to death and then fled the scene of the crime, finally shooting himself in the California desert. Rodriguez was a high-profile ex-member of the Children of God, also called the Family, a controversial hippie cult of the 1970s that had spiraled into aberrant sexual behaviors and other disconcerting practices. Rodriguez was seeking revenge for the sexual abuse that his murder victim and others had committed against him when he was a child (the cult had gone so far as to record its crimes in a bizarre book that glibly described—and provided photographic evidence of—sexual relations between adults and children). Lattin, who covered the religion beat for the San Francisco Chronicle, offers an arresting if uneven account of the Family. He begins by arguing that the cult is best understood in the context of American evangelicalism, and does some strong investigation into the founder's ancestry to prove this point. But he does not sustain these threads throughout the book, which becomes a typical true crime tale. Some aspects of the Family, like flirty fishing (sacred prostitution), are carefully researched, while others (like a journalistic account of how the cult funded itself so well on a global scale) are underreported. (Oct.)
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From Booklist

Lattin's true-crime story concerns a cult left over from the 1970s boom in disturbing mass religious movements: the Children of God, whose founder, David Brandt Berg (1919–94), called Moses by devotees, preached an aggressive Christianity that sanctioned consensual heterosexual intercourse between adults, regardless of marital status. Before 1986, however, adult-child heterosexual relations were also approved, and therein lay the motive of Ricky "Davidito" Rodriguez. Raised in the cult, he was the son of second-in-command Karen Zerby and was intended to succeed Berg (hence his nickname). But those plans went awry as Rodriguez came to resent the sex thrust upon him when a child. The favored child turned against his elders most dramatically. In 2005 he murdered those responsible for his abuse and then himself. Lattin's focus becomes a little shaky as his presentation veers between straight reportage and the metaphysics of the cult's messianic thing, but he remains eminently readable. A treasure trove for those curious about aberrant cultic enterprises. Tribby, Mike

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; First Edition edition (October 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061118044
• ISBN-13: 978-0061118043
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #779,891 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Account of Religious Madness, November 23, 2007

By	Frank Scoblete "Author of The Virgin Kiss and... (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Strap yourself in for a ride into true sickness. The "Children of God," known today as "The Family" is a cult that started in the 1970s and descended into true sexual madness by following the "God-inspired" personal prophecies of a drunken, sex maniac who called himself Moses David.

Yes, sex between adults, sex with children, sex between children, sex with your own children too. In one section you discover that the murderer had been having sex since he was a few months old (his nannies played with him) and then at 18 months was engaging in sex with a five month old!

This cult wanders from place to place around the world to this day. Adherents have numerous kids and numerous grandchildren but no one knows whose kids are really theirs or whose are those from when these individuals' wives were prostitutes luring men to join the cult by sharing God's love through sexual relations.

To say this is the story of sickness is to underplay how truly vile this "religion" is.

This is eye-opening reading.

Frank Scoblete: author of Golden Touch Dice Control Revolution!

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dramatic take on religious lunacy, October 23, 2007

By	Christopher D. Ringwald (Albany USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In the mid-1970s, my brother's friend found Jesus and straightened out from his rebellion. He came back to visit and give us the good news. His eyes were clear and his afro bobbed as he talked away in our living room and my father listened politely. The first stage in any conversion is often welcome, though I never found out what happened later to our friend the Jesus freak. Now in his compelling new book, Don Lattin tells how one branch of these born-again Christian hippies quickly diverged into a dangerous cult. Lattin, a fellow religion reporter, keeps the story on track with evidence, anecdote and inside accounts. Sometimes painful, always engaging, the book sounds the alarm about any religious faith that veers into a privatized realm of authority and power.
Chris Ringwald is author of several books on spirituality and religion, including A Day Apart: How Jews, Christians, and Muslims Find Faith, Freedom, and Joy on the Sabbath and The Soul of Recovery: Uncovering the Spiritual Dimension in the Treatment of Addictions

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Informative!, June 28, 2008

By	Elaine "Bookish in California" (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This book provides a background and context for the murder-suicide of Ricky Rodriguez, the involuntary prophet-apparent of The Family, an international religious cult. Also known as The Children of God, the group began in the late sixties under direction of David Berg, a self-appointed prophet, polygamist, pedophile, and narcissist. It continues today, led by Karen (sp?) Zerby, Ricky Rodriguez's mother. The book is a very well-rounded account of the cult's beginnings, compared with other so-called new religions, written by a journalist who covered religion for major newspapers for many years. It's a quick, informative read. I also recommend Not Without My Sisters, a memoir by three girls who grew up moving in the cult around the world.